Ulm box
The Ulmer Schachtel is a type of one-way boat that has been used to transport goods, passengers and troops on the Danube since the Middle Ages . It was only used for short journeys downstream.
history
overview
The Ulmer Schachtel was originally just a nickname for the Wiener Zille , a type of one-way boat that has been used to transport goods on the Danube since the Middle Ages . The earliest mention of the Zille is from the Dominican - monk Felix Fabri of 1488/89. Zillen are the classic workboat type in the Danube region. This type of ship was also known in Ulm , primarily as a smaller boat, for example for fishing. However, rafts were used to transport goods downstream, which required a lot of wood in relation to the payload.
It is guaranteed that shipbuilders, so-called Schopper , were recruited from the Bavarian Danube region in the 18th century in order to get a grip on the increasing demand for wood for rafts. Since then, a larger type of Zill, originally known as the Kelheimer , has been built in Ulm , primarily for transporting goods down the Danube.
The ancestors of the Kässbohrer family of vehicle manufacturers from Ulm were Zillenbauer.
Surname
The name of the Ulmer Schachtel dates back to the 19th century and is based on the fact that these barges were built in Ulm and had the city colors, a black and white stripe pattern. As a box , they were mocked because of their extremely simple construction, especially in Württemberg, where more elegant ships were used from the Neckar . This simple construction was practical, as the greater part of them was only used for the one-time so-called Nauffahrt downstream. At the end of the journey, Ulm boxes were often sold as timber or for further use. A picture of an Ulm box can be seen in the gable of the Ulm City Hall .
nature
Ulmer Schachteln, called Wiener Zillen after the destination in Ulm at the time , were simply constructed, up to 30 meters long boats that had a house on the deck to protect valuable cargo and passengers. They drifted downstream on the Danube with rods.
The Wiener Zillen was used to transport goods and people to Regensburg , Passau , Linz , Vienna , Budapest and Belgrade in regular weekly ship traffic from Ulm . Since they ran regularly according to the timetable, they were called "Ordinary ships". The ships were built and operated by their own guild. While the boats were initially a maximum of 22 m long and 3 m wide, their dimensions increased over time. Towards the end of the 19th century they reached sizes of up to 30 meters in length and 7.5 meters in width. The side wall of these boats was about 1.5 meters high. In the middle of the ship was a larger wooden hut. When goods were transported, the goods were stored here; when emigrating , this was the weather protection of the passengers. On its journey down the Danube, the vehicle was steered with rods or rudder blades , two at the bow and two at the stern.
Passenger transportation
Between the late 17th and the end of the 18th century, various groups of German emigrants came to the countries of southeastern Europe newly conquered by the Habsburgs in Ulm boxes . The ethnic groups of the Hungarian Germans and / or Danube Swabians emerged in their new settlement areas in today's Romania , Hungary and Serbia . From 1804 to 1818, thousands of emigrants who embarked in Ulm on rafts and Ulmer Schachteln came down the Danube to the mouth of the Black Sea , from which the ethnic groups of the Bessarabian , Dobruja and Black Sea Germans were formed.
Since the 20th century
This type of boat from the Zille is still used today as a work, fishing and leisure boat. Its particular suitability for flood rescue operations by volunteer fire brigades along the river should be emphasized .
They are still made from coniferous wood, mainly larch and spruce . There are production facilities mainly on the Upper Austrian Danube near Engelhartszell . The sizes produced here are around 6 to 12 meters long, but in exceptional cases far more.
Ulm boxes are used in the annual Nabada , a traditional water parade in Ulm. Annual Zillensport championships are of regional importance.
Five boxes , one larger and four smaller , operate on the Danube between Ulm and Vienna for tourist purposes . However, they do not drive short distances and usually only a few times a year. The operator is the Society of Donaufreunde Ulm eV
literature
- Strange and complete travel description of the Würtemberger, Baden and Swiss people who emigrated to Caucasus in 1817. From the diary of someone who wandered there. To reassure those who stayed behind in the fatherland and at the same time as a warning not to follow the emigrants , "Germania" 1818 (new edition edited by Friedrich Fiechtner. Landsmannschaft der Bessarabiendeutschen, Stuttgart 1970).
- Ernst Neweklowsky: The shipping and rafting in the area of the upper Danube . Series of publications by the Institute for Regional Studies of Upper Austria. 3 volumes, Linz 1952–1954.
- Wolf-Henning Petershagen, Ulrich Burst: The Ulmer Box. A floating curiosity . Süddeutsche Verlagsgesellschaft, Ulm 2001, ISBN 3-88294-316-5 , new edition: Small history of the Ulmer Schachteln , Klemm & Oelschläger, Ulm 2010, ISBN 978-3-932577-86-4 .
- Christoph Sonntag: Swabian popular errors: A lexicon . 2nd edition, edition q in Bebra, Berlin 2011, pp. 68 ff, ISBN 978-3-86124-659-6 (chapter Danube Swabia ).
Web links
- History of Danube navigation on the website of the Society of Friends of the Danube
- Interview with Henning Petershagen, author of Die Ulmer Schachtel. A floating curiosity
- Emigrants to Russia: The Way to Tbilisi (Transcaucasia)
See also
Individual evidence
- ^ Henning Petershagen: The Ulmer Schachtel , ISBN 978-3-7995-8023-6 .
- ↑ City history: Trademark Ulmer Schachtel , accessed on May 17, 2019.
- ↑ Box trip timetable 2018 , accessed on May 17, 2019.
- ↑ Ulmer Schachtel on www.reisetravel.eu, accessed on May 17, 2019.